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“It’s a great tradition,” said skater Melissa Gregory, who came back to perform with her partner and husband, Denis Petukhov, for the fifth year and have since brought their young skating group, Performing Arts on Ice, to participate."

Technician - It’s more like a Happy Meal: "The Krispy Kreme Challenge has quickly entered the ranks of N.C. State’s most hallowed traditions. It transcends class and major, bringing more than 6,000 people together for charity in one of the most difficult physical challenges most competitors have ever experienced. The 2,400 calories from the 12 doughnuts and the four-mile run that brackets them are incredibly difficult — uniquely so. The challenge is so tricky, in fact, that Sports Illustrated named it one of the “101 Things to Do Before You Graduate.”

In some sort of strange adaptation of the KKC, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Interfraternity Council will host the Chick-fil-A Challenge Saturday. The event, which is based on the success of N.C. State’s groundbreaking philanthropy run, will raise money for the N.C. Children’s Hospital."

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

massnonprofit.org ::: "April 17, 2010 — Twenty-four of the 50 largest employers in Massachusetts are nonprofit organizations, according to the latest ranking compiled by the Boston Business Journal, underscoring the importance of the sector to the state.

Fifteen of the 24 nonprofits are healthcareinstitutions, while the remaining nine are colleges and universities, according to the listing published this week."

Politics Mixes with Everything! | IMAGINE 2050: "South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu delivered the keynote for the International Conference of the Association of Fundraising Professionals on April 13, 2010. As he addressed 3,000 professional fundraisers from dozens of countries, I wondered how his remarks would be received. The 79 year old slightly stooped priest was the only major speaker who did not use props, gimmicks, or PowerPoint. He just gripped the podium and preached to the crowd. You could have heard a pin drop."

Neal Glickfield, Bunk Beds for Kids: "Unfortunately, we quickly realized that Haiti couldn't receive beds because they needed houses first. Still desiring to give away these beds, I decided instead to reach out to local Habitat for Humanity affiliates to see if they needed bunk beds for families in the Washington region. They did. Ever since then, I've been traveling and focusing on getting bunk beds to give away. I've been getting some great deals with factories to help give these to children in need."

'We looked at organizations by budget size, by subsector of non-profit, by geography, and we found no differences,' said Michael Nilsen, AFP's senior director of public affairs. 'It's universal.'

The survey was sent to development directors and other fund-raising professionals employed by non-profits. Of the 350 who responded, 46 percent said their organizations raised less money than they had in 2008, while 43 percent said they had raised more."

It took quite a while during the launch of the Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s 30th season to read through and individually thank the event’s long list of supporters – 52 corporate sponsors in all, plus 19 government and non-profit organizations."

Robert Cialdini, author and speaker, may remind you of one of PBS's ubiquitous programs about motivation (think of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer) or a television evangelist such as Robert Schuller, but that doesn't mean that he isn't spot on."

Monday, April 19, 2010

The nation’s more than 75,000 grant-making foundations to cut their 2009 giving by an estimated 8.4 percent -- by far the largest decline ever tracked by the Foundation Center in New York City.

Grant dollars fell from $46.8 billion to $42.9 billion. According tothe organization’s Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates (2010 Edition), the cutback totaled less than half the 17 percent loss in foundation assets recorded in the prior year."